In a cinema on the harbour in Bristol, we were shown two images: one of an urban fox standing on a stone wall in suburbia, ears pricked, head low, amber eyes staring at the camera, and the other, of an endangered Bornean orangutan climbing a tree deep in the rain forest of Gunung Palung National Park in Indonesia. These were portraits of two different species in habitats separated by thousands of miles. Yet both images triggered similar emotions: awe, wonder, humor, sympathy and curiosity. What were they up to? What happened next?

The portraits of the fox and the orangutan, taken by Sam Hobson and Tim Laman, were among many wildlife images shown at this year’s Wildscreen Festival, held last month in Bristol. For the first time, the natural history festival dedicated a day to the medium of still photography, as part of its vision to ensure that ‘as many people as possible experience the natural world, feel part of it and want to help protect it,’ and in recognition of the growing importance of photography in conservation storytelling.

We were shown images of arctic floes and waterlogged woodland, crested grebes on Hampstead Heath and gray wolves in Yellowstone Park, wolf spiders in Madeira, common toads migrating to breeding ponds and freshwater crabs that live among Rome’s ancient ruins.

Among the photographers who spoke was Dr. Emanuele Biggi, who talked of his love of ‘lesser’ known animals such as anthropods and amphibians and the joy he derives from discovery; Joseph Wright, who revealed his fascination for ‘edgelands’ and how his work is an instinctive response to place and Nick Cobbing, whose photographs of the months he spent floating on sea ice aboard Polar Research vessel R.V. Lance brought the cold, empty, white-blue beauty of the Arctic Ocean to autumnal south-west England.

Wildlife filmmaker and producer Martin Dohrn spoke about the ‘wandering’ Asiatic lions of southern Gujarat, and the difficulty of making images at night that do justice to their incredible story. He also talked about capturing one of the most spectacular of all natural phenomena: bioluminescence – the light made by living things (which was the subject of his award-winning film David Attenborough’s Light on Earth(Life That Glows)). Martin’s collection of ethereal images included a metallic blue earthworm from the Loire Valley, and David Attenborough holding a green Motyxia millipede. Photographer Sam Hobson talked about his mission to ‘to show the commonplace in a different light.’ His photographs of urban wildlife showed vixens suckling their cubs in a suburban garden; peregrine falcons swooping high above a concrete cityscape and lime-green parakeets flocking against a backdrop of grey stone graves. The photographs revealed, again and again, the extraordinary beauty and majesty of the natural world.

But the images also bore witness to the all-too-familiar story of species’ decline, habitat destruction and pollution. ‘The natural world is collapsing about our ears,’ said Martin Dohrn. ‘It needs us to tell its stories.’ We heard Sam Hobson’s story about remote Grassholm, an island off the coast of Wales that supports 36,000 pairs of breeding Atlantic gannets (10% of the global population), but where marine plastic waste is causing devastating injuries to the birds. ‘People think that plastic pollution is happening in a far off location,’ Sam said. ‘In fact, it is happening two hours from Wildscreen.’

National Geographic photographer and field biologist, Tim Laman, told his own story about the years he has spent deep in the Borneo rainforest taking photographs of endangered orangutans, and of the logging, hunting and forest fires that threaten their survival. ‘We only have one chance to save the rainforest and orangutans,’ he said. ‘So lets get it right.’ Kathy Moran, Senior Editor at National Geographic showed us distressing but memorable images of a black rhino’s wrinkled, leathered face, with a coagulated bloody wound where its horn once grew: the tragic result of rhino poaching. ‘You don’t shy away from an important story,’ she said.

Only days after Wildscreen ended, the Living Planet Index revealed that global populations of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles had declined by 58% between 1970 and 2012. ‘A shared understanding of the link between humanity and nature could induce a profound change that will allow all life to thrive …’ read the report.

It was obvious at Wildscreen that photography is vital tool in promoting this understanding. As Sheena Harvey, Editor of BBC Wildlife magazine said, ‘When we read a story, the words back up the wonder, amazement and empathy we get from the visual impact of photographs.’

]]>http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2016/11/17/wildscreen-2016-the-role-of-photography-in-natural-history-storytelling/feed/0186183Cecil the Lion one Year on: An Interview with Cecil’s Researcherhttp://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2016/07/07/cecil-the-lion-a-year-on-interview-with-cecils-researcher/
http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2016/07/07/cecil-the-lion-a-year-on-interview-with-cecils-researcher/#commentsThu, 07 Jul 2016 21:56:36 +0000http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/?p=179043A year ago, a male lion called Cecil was killed in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, by an American trophy hunter. Cecil’s death caused uproar around the world and shone a much-needed light on the decline and vulnerability of the African lion population; today, there may be no more than 20,000 remaining in the wild.

To mark the year since Cecil’s death, I interviewed Brent Stapelkamp, a lion researcher who had followed Cecil for many years.

How did Cecil’s death affect his pride, and how has the pride developed over the past year?

Brent: Infanticide following the death of the pride male is a major threat to lion cubs, and something we see every time a pride male is hunted.

Because Jericho (a partner in Cecil’s coalition) was still around, we thought that he would protect Cecil’s cubs as his own – although we couldn’t be sure, especially as he was not related to them. As the year developed, however, we saw that although the pride was never physically close to Jericho, they stayed within his territory and under his protection.

Fairly soon after Cecil’s death, a cub and a lioness went missing. Their disappearance left two lionesses and six cubs, which was how the pride remained for many months. And then one day we heard that the lioness and, amazingly, the cub, had returned!

As far as I know all the cubs are females. As they are now coming of age, they will be in far less danger from any new males who might arrive in the area, who will now view them as potential mates, instead of inducing oestrus in the lionesses by killing their cubs.

Why is trophy hunting detrimental to lion populations?

Brent: Trophy hunting goes against the evolutionary order of things, which simply means the “survival of the fittest”. Lions are aggressively territorial, so they’ll fight; the strongest (which means fittest, in biological terms) wins and sires cubs.

When a trophy hunter selects the largest male he can find, he removes the strongest male who will, by nature, have been the pride male. The new, probably weaker, male now kills all the strong male cubs and replaces them with his weaker genes. So lions are lost in actual terms – and their genetic potential is also lost.

A secondary effect that is now being seen is that when a pride male is removed, his females take the cubs to a place where they cannot be killed by new males. This usually means removing them into an area where lions fear to tread – amongst people.

The lions kill livestock and are invariably killed in return, so trophy hunting is actually a driver of human/lion conflict, which is the largest direct source of lion mortality in Africa today.

Can hunting ever be useful for conservation?

Brent: The argument that hunting can be good for conservation, with many benefits, is an old one. When scrutinised, however, I feel the arguments don’t hold water in a modern African context.

The strongest arguments are that hunting provides a land management use in areas that are not suitable for photographic safaris, and has anti-poaching benefits. But I feel that the world is finding it less and less acceptable to kill animals in order save them.

Admittedly there are many thousands of square kilometers of African wildlife habitat that perhaps have only remained as such in the face of growing human pressure precisely because they bring in an income from hunting. But to say that this argument justifies hunting is – to me anyway – a cop out.

I believe that as creative human beings we can come up with ways to maintain those areas as wildlife habitats and generate income streams that don’t result in dead animals.

Trophy hunting is an egocentric pastime. Very few of the benefits from trophy hunting ever reach the people who live cheek by jowl with these animals, or go towards conservation efforts. I think the justification for trophy hunting therefore vanishes; it just looks like a rich man’s exploitation of a finite resource.

Do you applaud the fact that certain countries have amended their trophy-hunting laws and certain airlines won’t transport trophies? What more can they be doing?

Brent: I do applaud it. It sends out a very strong message: that the majority of people don’t accept this as a “sport”. I see a lot of potential in using the global momentum generated and the passion the world has shown for Cecil’s story, to change the conservation landscape.

If the world loves lions, and by that I largely mean the western world, then they have to help pay for them. Africa cannot be expected to front the bill for animals that, for the most part, Africans can’t afford to see. Often their only impression of them is one that is based on the conflict that lions have with their livestock.

I want the world to realize the unique value that lions have contributed to our human evolution, cultures and economies, and define them as the first World Heritage Species. Give lions that label and use their “sex appeal” to generate the funds needed to replace hunting as the defining use of thousands of square kilometres of land.

If you save lions, you simultaneously save both prey species and landscapes – which makes it the most efficient means of conservation.

To your mind, what are the main reasons for the steep decline in the wild lion population in Africa?

Brent: The biggest reason for the decline in the lion population across Africa is the encroachment into protected areas and loss of their prey. Then conflict with humans over livestock, and trophy hunting.

What conservation measures do you believe are critical for the survival of lions?

Brent: We need to engender a sense of pride in Africans about lions, because they are the only ones left with a species that was once almost as widespread as us (globally).

To do that it is essential to see the benefits from living with lions – and not just pay the bill!

We also need more exposure to lions! In a way that sounds counter-intuitive, but the old “fortress” mentality in conservation only serves to exclude people from wildlife, which means it then becomes a breeding ground for myth, fear and resentment. “Blur the lines” I’d say, which means getting rid of the fortress mentality and allow more decision-making by, and access to the resources for, the people who live there.

What do you remember most about Cecil?

Brent: I remember his confidence more than anything else. There was no other lion that was as comfortable around vehicles.

Can you describe your affinity for lions and the wilderness, and what it is about lions that fascinates you?

Brent: I am an absolute “cat man” in that I deeply understand cats and their body language. Lions are really the ultimate cat and when you add in their social side, you truly have something special.

I love the fact that in this day and age, with all our technological advances, we still have our oldest companion – the lion – sharing spaces with us!

I will continue to work hard to make sure that this continues to be true.

Joanna Eede, former editorial consultant to Survival International, has a particular interest in the relationship between nature and humans, especially tribal peoples. She has created and edited three environmental books, including Portrait of England (Think Publishing, 2006) and We are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples (Quadrille, 2009). Joanna writes for newspapers and magazines on subjects such as the repatriation of wild Przewalski horses to Mongolia, the whales of the Alboran Sea, the chimpanzees of the Mahale rainforest, uncontacted tribes of the Amazon rainforest, and the Hadza hunter-gatherers of Tanzania. She is researching a book about Tibet’s nomads.

The Omo River rises on the mountainous plateau of Ethiopia’s Shewan Highlands, then flows for hundreds of kilometres through lush grasslands, acacia plains and riverine forests, until it reaches Kenya’s Lake Turkana.

The river’s lower valley, in the southwest corner of the country, is a wild, beautiful, remote region. In the mud and volcanic rock of the Omo’s banks, paleontologists have found the fossilized remnants of early hominids, discoveries that have contributed to man’s understanding of human evolution.

The Lower Omo Valley is a region where migrating peoples with a broad genetic and linguistic diversity converged. Today herdsman, agro-pastoralists and fishermen still live along the lower reaches of the river. Many depend on the flood cycles of the Omo for their survival. Every year the Omo swells, overflows, and deposits silt on the riverbanks as it retreats. It is on this rich, fertile silt that the valley’s tribes have long planted crops such as sorghum, corn, maize and beans.

Matilda Temperley’s new book, ‘Omo – Change in the Valley’ is a collection of sensitive and strikingly composed images that are not only testament to the beauty and diversity of the Omo peoples, but a reminder that there are many different ways of being human. Matilda’s photographs, captions and text also show the grim reality of what is happening to their ancestral lands. As she describes, the construction of hydroelectric dam ‘Gibe 111’ will limit the flow of water to the south-western area of the Omo River, so threatening the region’s ecology, wildlife and the tribe’s flood recession techniques.

“Since my first visit to the Omo Valley … I have witnessed a change in both the landscape and its inhabitants,” Matilda writes. “While modernisation is inevitable, in the Omo it appears to be at the expense of the inhabitants rather than at their hands. The scars are visible in the hundreds of thousands of acres of bare earth waiting to be planted by multinational corporations. The current pace of change driven by the industrial farming practices is impossible for the people of the valley to assimilate.”

More closely related to an ass than a horse, the Grevy’s zebra (Equus grevyi) is the world’s largest living wild equid.

The Grevy’s zebra has a stripe pattern as unique as a human fingerprint, and large round ears. Once used in Roman circuses, it was forgotten by the western world for a millennium, until it was named after a 19th century French President who had been given one by the Emperor of Abyssinia. Today, Grevy’s zebras are Africa’s most endangered large mammal and can now only be found in northern Kenya and southern and eastern Ethiopia.

Towards the end of the 1970s, the global population was estimated at approximately 15,000 animals; today, it is thought that no more than 2,500 roam across the arid grass and scrubland habitat of its Horn of Africa range. Numbers have plummeted by up to 87%, primarily due to poaching, loss of habitat and access to water and hot droughts.

But dedicated efforts by conservationists including the Grevys Zebra Trust (GZT) means that prospects are finally improving for the animal. Aware that, “Conservation of the species cannot be viewed in isolation of local people,” as Belinda Low, Executive Director of Grévy’s Zebra Trust says, GZT recently launched an initiative with warriors from the indigenous Samburu and Rendille tribes. The ‘Grévy’s Zebra Warriors’ (GZT) monitor Grevy’s zebra, raise awareness, and provide protection to the species. They are trained in GPS skills, datasheet recording and photography. “Working with local pastoral communities is critical to the long-term survival of Grévy’s zebra,” says Belinda. “Their outreach to communities has created a large network of local support through which conservation messaging is disseminated and practical conservation action, including dry season water management, mud rescue efforts and supplementary feeding, is implemented.”

Lekuira Lperia, one of the Grévy’s Zebra Warriors who lives in Samburu, was recently interviewed by Joanna Eede.

When did you become a Samburu warrior?

I became a Moran (warrior) six years ago.

Can you explain the traditional role of a warrior in your Samburu community?

The role of a warrior in Samburu culture is largely a defender of the community. We have to defend the community against its enemies, which are usually other tribes. Morans also make sure that the community’s livestock has enough grass to graze on and water to drink.

The Samburu community really respects warriors. They make many of the decisions about things such as livestock, herding and migration.

Are Grévys zebra important in Samburu culture?

Yes! We use Grévy’s zebra to lead us to pastures. When someone is looking for pasture for livestock, the first thing they do is search for Grévy’s zebra spoor. Grévy’s zebra also lead us to water.

When did you start to develop an interest in conservation?

Being able to live with and alongside wildlife is very important, so five years I started protecting wildlife. I did this by talking to livestock herders and asking them not to disturb or kill animals.

How did you become involved with the Grévy’s Zebra Trust (GZT)?

The GZT team came to our village and told us that they needed people to help protect Grévy’s zebra. So I became a Grévy’s Zebra Trust Warrior three years ago. And I am now earning with GZT, so my livelihood has improved.

Can you tell me what a typical day is like for you working for GZT?

I start the day by milking my livestock and having a cup of tea. I then go out on patrol. We know the areas where there are many different types of wildlife. I guide my herders to places where they are able to graze their livestock, and check on how they are grazing their animals. We also walk to waterholes, in order to refill the animals’ water troughs.

At midday I return home to have something to eat, and then rest for a while.

When the livestock return to the village in the evening, I count them in. I then milk the cows for my parents and have supper.

I am a Moran, so I have to sing in the evenings. It is normal for all the Moran and Samburu girls to dance together. We dance throughout the night; people join us from many different areas, and we share news.

Dancing is a way of protecting livestock from predators, because the noise scares predators away. Dances normally take place during the green (wet) season, when all livestock are at home in the village. During the dry spells we don’t tend to dance because Moran and livestock are not around; they leave the area to look for areas that are rich in pasture and water.

How do you raise awareness about Grévy’s zebra within your community?

I try to bring together different social groups – such as the moran, elders and women – and inform them of the importance of protecting wildlife on our lands.

We also hold community meetings with warriors and herders, and visit schools. We explain to people that it is important to manage wildlife and livestock well, so they can live alongside each other.

The community knows that we work with Grévy’s zebra, so they provide us with recent information, such as zebra sightings or discovery of spoor.

Recently they told us that a Grévy’s zebra had given birth. We went to check on its health, and luckily found that both mother and baby were still alive.

A lugga (a dry river bed) is the only source of water for Grévy’s zebra. So in the early morning I walk to the Kamatonyi Lugga to see if I can find any zebra spoor. I also know where zebra pastures are; I track their spoor until I locate where they are grazing.

When I find Grévy’s zebra I walk slowly towards them. I identify the sex and age of the animal with the use of my binoculars.

Our community does not traditionally kill and eat Grévy’s zebra. So I just inform herders not to disturb them, and to let them graze in the same area as livestock.

Kamatonyi lugga is the only local source of water. At night, children used to use torches to scare Grévys Zebra away from the lugga. But since I have been employed by GZT, children haven’t played around the water hole at night.

There was also a village near the lugga that was blocking the Grévys zebra’s corridor to the water hole. So we moved the village, and opened up a route for Greévy’s zebra to access water.

When the water level goes down we dig sand from the lugga in order to make shallow wells, so that Grévys zebra can then reach water.

When it is very dry, Grévy’s zebra walk a long way to find water and graze, so they become difficult to find. However during the wet season, when pasture is available, I am able to locate them nearby.

What are your goals for the future?

We live in a big area, and at the moment there are only 2 Moran who work for GZT in the region. So we are unable to capture all the data and information about Grévy’s zebra. Also, poachers operate in some of the areas in which I work, and sadly many elephants have been killed by poachers.

But in time my goal is to make sure that I am able to reach all the areas where Grévy’s zebra graze, in order to protect them.

It is a little known fact that there are more rhinos remaining in Africa than there are lions. In fact, until the killing of the lion ‘Cecil’ by a U.S. hunter in Zimbabwe earlier this year, it was also not popularly known that African lion numbers are in free-fall.

The statistics are disturbing. In 1975, estimates given by the IUCN put African wild lion numbers at approximately 200,000. Forty years on, there are thought to be fewer than 20,000 left. Lions have disappeared from more than 80% of their historical range.

And yet, there is still hope for Panthera leo. Across Africa, dedicated conservationists are working to ensure that this iconic species does not become extinct. And last month, a visionary new lion conservation alliance, PRIDE, was officially launched at Houston Zoo.

As the moniker suggests, the founders of PRIDE (http://lions.houstonzoo.org/) are all women. They are all determined conservation biologists who run individual projects in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique and all of whom have had extraordinary successes in lion conservation: Dr. Alayne Cotterill and Shivani Bhalla of Ewaso Lions; Dr. Leela Hazzah and Dr. Stephanie Dolrenry of Lion Guardians; Dr. Colleen Begg of Niassa Carnivore Project (NCP) and Dr. Amy Dickman of Ruaha Carnivore Project (RCP).

The genesis of the alliance lay in a series of conversations between the six women, which unveiled their shared ethos – that of truly collaborative conservation. “We were all working towards similar goals and realised that there must be a way of working that would make our efforts more effective,” says Dr. Alayne Cotterill, a British biologist who has lived and worked in Africa for 19 years. A lack of collaboration between conservation organisations had long given rise to unnecessary and time-consuming problems. Not only did the founders find that they were competing for the same funding, “which made us work less well together”, but there was also a dearth of mechanisms for sharing vital data. “We realised that we – and conservation as a whole – didn’t have time for such repetitive inefficiency,” says Dr. Cotterill. And so, PRIDE was born.

A young male lion rests in the burnt woodland in Niassa Reserve (Photograph by Sue McConnell)

The philosophical aim of PRIDE is the elimination of any competition between the founders, for the sake of the common goal – the conservation of wild African lions. “Our vision is a world where conservation professionals work much more closely together and support each other, to better achieve their conservation goals,” says Dr. Amy Dickman, another British animal conservationist who holds the Kaplan Senior Research Fellowship in Wild Cat Conservation at Oxford University. Theirs is an ideologically sound concept whose message is clear: now is not the time for egos or professional territoriality. If lions are to survive in the wild, genuine cooperation and the down-tooling of personal agendas is paramount. “Everything we do in each individual project will have a greater impact on saving lions because it will be shared among us,” says Dr. Dickman. With a study published in early November in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) suggesting that half of lion populations will be lost in key regions of Africa within two decades – if sustained conservation efforts are not made – it seems the nascence of PRIDE is timely.

“Given the perilous state of Africa’s rapidly declining lion population, it is imperative that conservationists collaborate as much as possible. It is therefore really encouraging that many of the leading conservationists working to protect lions have come together to form the Pride alliance to share and swap ideas and pool their considerable knowledge,” says Charlie Mayhew, Founder and Chief Executive of Tusk Trust.

On a practical level, the six founders have agreed to share “anything and everything” that they feel is of use: organisational talents, leadership abilities, raw data, sensitive material, educational packages, an understanding of key conservation tools – not to mention the vast banks of knowledge they have each accrued and, of course the experiential benefits of having spent 100 combined years deep in the African bush. Fundamental to this collaborative pledge is the founders’ implicit trust in one another. This bedrock of emotional security means they feel able to disclose any professional failures without the fear of criticism, so learning from each other’s mistakes as well as successes. “The emotional side will be much harder to quantify than the practical, but it is just as important,” says Dr. Stephanie Dolrenry, a field scientist who has been working and living at remote sites for more than 15 years. Their vision is teamwork par excellence – accepting human differences and frailties while capitalising on assets, all in the name of the ultimate goal.

Today, the major threats to lions across Africa are conflict with people and the loss of habitat and prey. On a more specific level, threats vary between the Founders’ project sites. In Mozambique’s Niassa National Reserve, where South Africans Dr. Colleen Begg and her husband Keith have been working to save lions and other big cats for more than a decade, the greatest threat to lions comes from snares that are set to poach bushmeat. In the process of ensnaring game, poachers kill not only lion prey but, inadvertently, lions as well. “This problem could eventually lead to an empty woodland,” says Dr. Begg. Her work in Niassa has tackled poaching with the use of the high-tech tool, SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool) and also by providing locals with alternative sources of protein, such as rabbits and ducks.

In both Kenya and Tanzania the leading cause of lion deaths is conflict with people over livestock depredation. Over the past 40 years, human population growth in rural Africa has increased exponentially. The conversion of great tracts of land to agriculture or human settlement has led to an unsustainable loss of lion habitat and the poaching of traditional lion prey such as gazelle or zebra. Hungry lions then turn to easy targets – livestock – the loss of which has adverse economic effects on locals. In retaliation, livestock owners shoot, spear or poison the lions that have depleted their livelihood.

The threats to lions are not insubstantial. Yet through their individual organisations, PRIDE’s founders have had positive impacts on lion communities’ tolerance towards lions in their respective areas. Lion Guardians has observed a staggering tripling of the lion population across a massive area (4,000 square kms) of the Amboseli-Tsavo ecosystem, and over $3,500,000 of potential livestock loss was avoided in 2014; retaliatory killings in certain villages in Ruaha, one of the most important areas in the world for large carnivores, have dropped by at least 80% since the inception of the RCP’s conflict mitigation project six years ago; northern Kenya is one of the country’s only other regions where lion populations have increased outside fenced areas over the past five years, thanks to Ewaso Lions’ community programmes. And since 2012, no lions have been snared in one area in Niassa, after the NCP’s livestock breeding and anti-poaching programmes were introduced – whereas 5-6 lions were being snared every year previously.

It is clear that the founders have accrued extraordinary individual successes in their fields. They also share deeply held convictions. One is that the future of the wild African lion lies in the ability of humans and lions to coexist, and that the key to peaceful co-existence is to change the attitudes of those local people who not only live with lions, but whose livelihoods are threatened by the big cats. “Lion conservation is as much about working with people as it is with lions,” says Dr. Leela Hazzah, the first female Egyptian carnivore conservationist, who has been studying the motivations behind lion killings for the past decade. “We need to design innovative and culturally-appropriate interventions, which are aimed at changing human behaviour”.

Each of the founders has invested hugely in engaging their local communities in conservation, running programmes with elders, children, women and warriors. These programmes fit as closely as possible with the rôles people have historically held within their communities – hence ‘culturally-appropriate’. So as warriors in Kenya and Tanzania would traditionally guard their community livestock from large carnivores and theft, it makes sense that their traditional role is adapted, “instead of killing the lions that threaten the livestock, they learn where they are and warn herders to keep their livestock away,” says Dr. Hazzah. Warriors also spend time visiting manyattas [homes] and talking to villagers about how better to guard their livestock. Women have typically always been responsible for looking after livestock at home, when men drive herds further afield. So schemes have been devised that encourage women to strengthen their bomas [animal enclosures] with heavy-duty chain-link fencing and learn how to keep carnivores at bay.“It is much easier to slightly tweak cultural values and practices to be more conservation-friendly than it is to completely change them,” says Dr. Hazzah.

Combined, the founders’ programmes have engaged over 30,000 local people in conservation, and have helped to conserve around a quarter of all the lions left in the world. “Involving all demographics is key in the conservation process,” says Shivani Bhalla, a 4th generation Kenyan who grew up watching Kenya’s wildlife. “I believe that conservation should become a way of life and I am excited to see that happening in Samburu.”

A local boy from Niassa National Reserve acts the part of a lion with a collar in a school play (Photograph by Dr. Colleen Begg)

That livestock are kept alive is vital. But it is also essential that local communities are made aware of the direct benefits of living with lions. PRIDE founders have thus equipped schools and healthcare clinics; established community funds; sponsored local football teams; provided pastoralists with veterinary care for their livestock; initiated workshops for local women on conservation and safe herding practices and funded local children through secondary boarding school. “I strongly believe that lion conservation is not only about providing benefits to communities to conserve lions, but also inspiring them to conserve,” says Shivani Bhalla. “Often the communities we work with have had no voice in conservation, and we give them that opportunity.”

Although much of the PRIDE members’ work focuses on human-dominated land, which represents over half of the remaining lion range, the Founders are also convinced that all but the most famous and visited parks and reserves in Africa – such as the Selous National Park or the Serengeti National Park – must also be secured. “Most protected areas in Africa are not receiving anywhere near the funding they need to be effective,” says Dr. Begg. “We need to get realistic about lion conservation and recognise that it is going to cost a lot of money.” PRIDE’s founders have recently been fund-raising in the U.S; a gala event held at Houston Zoo on the night of the launch raised $872,000 for PRIDE and for lion conservation worldwide.

PRIDE’s ultimate goal, in their own words, is ‘to secure lion populations into the future through effective collaboration’. Their formidable union brings together a unique collaboration of skills and experiences. And it also pools something less tangible but no less powerful – their respective passions. Each of the women is driven by a strong affinity for lions and an intense love of the African wild. “I am stubborn and passionate about large wilderness areas,” says Dr. Begg. “I personally refuse to contemplate a future for our children without lions, elephants and rhinos.” Dr. Cotterill agrees. “I instinctively feel sure that if the roar of a wild lion can no longer be heard anywhere on this planet, it will be a profound loss to us all.”

The black rhinoceros has roamed the earth for five million years, yet it is now facing the greatest threat in its history – from poaching. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the black rhino is ‘teetering on the brink of extinction’. There are just over 5,000 left in the wild in Africa; in Kenya alone, 21 were killed during 2014. Rhino horn is now worth more than gold on the black market.

Two years ago, Borana Conservancy, a 32,000 acre cattle ranch, conservancy and high-end tourist lodge in northern Kenya, became the world’s newest rhino sanctuary, when 21 rhino were moved to its rolling hills from Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and Lake Nakuru National Park.

Then, in 2014, the neighboring conservancies of Lewa and Borana became one large ecosystem, when the fence that divided them was brought down.

Joanna Eede’s recent interview with Sam Taylor, Borana’s Chief Conservation Officer, marks both World Rhino Day and the 2-year anniversary of Rhino living on Borana for the first time since the 1970s.

*How many black rhino were relocated to Borana in September 2013 and how many live on Borana now?

21 were translocated and there are 21 black rhino on Borana now, including a female who has moved on to Borana from Lewa. We have had four births and five deaths. Four of these deaths were natural, due to predation and intraspecies competition, and one was lost in a poaching incident.

*What has changed on Borana in the past 2 years?

The fence that used to separate Borana and Lewa came down. This means that the conservancies of Borana and Lewa are now one ecosystem; an amazing achievement that has created 93,000 acres of rhino habitat, with the potential to become a Key 1 (100+ animals) black rhino population within the next two years.

This new ecosystem provides more space for rhino to breed, increases genetic diversity and stimulates breeding. The extra space brings positive changes in territorial behavior.

*How many anti Rhino-poaching rangers are employed on Borana?

Borana’s wildlife security consists of the armed anti-poaching unit and the scouts who monitor the wildlife.We have 24 armed anti poaching rangers, and 74 monitoring rangers (scouts), who are unarmed.

We also have unarmed scout teams on Borana who are trained in new monitoring software called SMART and Cybertracker.

The anti-poaching teams are armed with for the sole purpose of protecting rhino against poachers. The anti-poaching teams are Police reservists and as such are also involved in providing local law enforcement for the local community, with regard to cattle rustling etc. This helps with our relationships and goodwill from our neighbors.The scouts monitor wildlife – particularly rhino – for their location and state of health, as well as the conservancy’s habitat and other fauna. This monitoring provides data that drives informed biological management of the ecosystem.

* Do the anti-poaching rangers use dogs?

Some of the rangers are taught how to handle bloodhounds and Belgian Malinois ‘attack’ dogs.

*Could you explain a typical day in the monitoring of rhino?

Rangers follow spoor until they find a rhino. The sighting is then called in to the supervisor, who will try to obtain a visual of the rhino in order to assess its health, breeding behaviour, feeding behaviour and, most importantly, its whereabouts. This information drives the day-to-day security strategy, in the absence of any good intelligence.

*What do you glean from the data you gather on daily basis, and how does it help conservation?

It is important to know numbers of competitive species and habitat types so that we can protect areas that are over-grazed or browsed, and improve water reticulation, etc.

It is also important to note the age and sex structure of certain key species, which determines the sustainability of each population.

From a security perspective it is vital to know about any sign of humans in the area, so thorough patrols are key. Also the monitoring of predators and of elephants breaking fences helps protect our neighbors from any human/wildlife conflict.

*Much of rhino poaching has been due to ‘inside intelligence’ – how do you keep rangers loyal at Borana?

Welfare is key. We provide the rangers with good salaries, kit, and training. We also provide educational support for their families, and face time with senior management, which means that any grievances can be sorted immediately. This relationship includes providing financial advice, which is important, as a ranger is most likely to resort to colluding with poaching syndicates if he has got himself into financial strife.

We are also building a new dedicated camp for them.The rangers are out all night and need good, quiet, private (due to the nature of their work) accommodation. We have a huge number of rangers who need comfort in their ‘down time’. The welfare of rangers is key to their ability in performing their tasks and their dedication to the cause.

*Can you explain how tourism, wildlife conservation and community interests are connected at Borana?

They are all interconnected. Tourism provides the revenue to keep the animals alive and the animals help the economic development of the surrounding communities.

*One of your long-term plans at Borana is to ensure that the Rhino start to breed. Has there been any success yet in the past 2 years?

Yes, we have had 4 births. Sadly one calf was killed by a rhino that was trying to mate with its mother.

*The fight against rhino poaching has been described as a war. Do you feel you are winning it?

Yes we are winning, but it is tenuous. We are afforded excellent support by the Kenyan government, which is perhaps not the case in other countries. We need to support the rangers and conservancies financially and in kind (i.e. with equipment such as binoculars). The security needed to protect rhino is vast and extremely expensive; it costs over $2000 a month to support a rhino, which is ultimately unsustainable. A number of conservancies have had to withdraw from the rhino program because of this, which has further escalated the pressure.

*What are your future plans for black Rhino conservation on Borana?

We willkeep on breeding and protecting them. It would also be a magnificent achievement to expand into community conservation areas to the north of Borana, and thus provide yet more habitat whilst at the same time engaging local communities in rhino conservation.

*How can tourists to Borana help protect endangered black Rhino?

Visit Borana. Just by being here visitors are contributing, as every cent from tourists goes back into conservation.

So have a holiday in one of the world’s last remaining beautiful safe havens for wildlife knowing that you are helping save it.

And of course any extra contributions are also hugely welcome!

*How many Rhino do you hope will ultimately live in this single ecosystem that has been created?

Over 100 blacks and 100 whites.

]]>http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/22/on-world-rhino-day-borana-conservancy-celebrates-2-years-as-a-rhino-sanctuary/feed/2166956Elsa the Lioness: The Spirit of Born Free on World Lion Dayhttp://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2015/08/09/elsa-the-lioness-the-spirit-of-born-free-on-world-lion-day/
http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2015/08/09/elsa-the-lioness-the-spirit-of-born-free-on-world-lion-day/#respondSun, 09 Aug 2015 23:15:16 +0000http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/?p=152763(Photograph by David Lloyd / davidlloyd.net)

There is a moving moment in the film Born Free, when Elsa the lioness walks across an African savannah towards the couple who hand-reared her. She had spent a week trying to fend for herself in northern Kenya. As she approaches them, they see that their experiment hasn’t worked: She is thin, bloodied and limping.

Joy and George Adamson were attempting to return the lioness they loved to the wild, but her injuries proved to George that she was unable to survive in her natural habitat. She had grown too accustomed to human care. Elsa was, in fact, no longer wild.

“What’s wrong with a zoo anyway?” George asks Joy. “Is freedom so important?”

“Yes!” cries Joy with passion. “She was born free and she has the right to live free!”

The 1964 film was based on the eponymous novel by author Joy Adamson. The book, which spent 13 weeks at the top of The New York Times Best Seller list, describes raising Elsa to maturity after she was orphaned as a tiny cub.

Joy’s “clumsy little velvet bag” was a young lioness with “perfect manners” whose paws became damp when she was nervous and who preferred to sleep stretched out on metal-framed camp beds instead of the African earth and who who fell asleep with Joy’s thumb in her mouth even as an adult. For the first few years of her life she and her two sisters lived with George, Joy and a pet rock-hyrax called Pati-Pati, at their Game Warden’s house in Kenya’s Northern Frontier District. After her sisters were sent to Rotterdam zoo, Elsa joined Joy and George on safari, travelling across the ancient dry lakebed of the Chalbi desert, to the volcanic slopes of the Marsabit Mountains and to the white beaches of Kenya’s coast.

The couple’s attempts to teach Elsa how to hunt and survive on her own were ultimately successful, and she was returned to the wild.

Filming in Kenya

Filming of Elsa’s life story began in Meru National Park, on the slopes of Mount Kenya, in 1964. The rôles of Joy and George were played by husband and wife actors, Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers, while more than twenty different lions were used to represent Elsa, including cubs sent from Ethiopia by Emperor Haile Selassie and two – “Girl” and “Boy” – who had once been mascots for the Royal Scots Guards in Nairobi.

The camera crew shot scenes from the safety of a cage, but Virginia and Bill refused actor doubles; instead, by working closely with George (the main technical advisor on the film), they were soon walking on their own with the lions, playing football with them at dawn and sharing lunches of hard boiled eggs and sardines. Virginia and Bill developed a “deep and humbling” bond with “Girl” in particular.

The Academy-award winning film was not only a box-office hit, but a profoundly life-changing experience for the actors. In her journals, Virginia wrote that leaving Africa was “agony”, as was saying goodbye to the many “Elsas” who starred in Born Free. “Guided by George and Joy, we began to understand how every animal is individual and that wild animals belong in the wild,” she wrote.

(Photography by David Lloyd / davidlloyd.net)

An Elephant Called Slowly

It was, however, the fate of an elephant named Pole Pole (Swahili for “slowly, slowly”) that was the catalyst for “Zoo Check”, the organisation Bill and Virginia established with their son, Will Travers, to challenge the keeping of wild animals in captivity.

As a two year old, Pole Pole had been taken from the wild as a gift for London zoo by the Kenyan government. She spent six weeks on the film set of “An Elephant called Slowly” in her native Kenya before being flown to the U.K.

More than a decade later, Bill and Virginia visited her in her concrete enclosure in Regent’s Park Zoo, where, as Virginia wrote, she “swayed abnormally to and fro”. When they called her name, however, she turned, trumpeted in recognition, reached across the moat with her trunk, and touched their hands. The Zoo, perhaps stung by Virginia’s criticism, tried to move the elephant to their larger country facility at Whipsnade but the move failed, Pole Pole damaged a leg and was euthanized soon after, at the young age of 16.

Founded in 1984, Zoo Check was immediately dismissed as a “9 day wonder” by London Zoo. But more than 30 years on, and just over 20 years after Bill’s death, what is now called the Born Free Foundation and its U.S. sister organisation, Born Free USA, are globally-respected, international wildlife charities with 100,000 supporters and a £5 million budget.

(Photograph by David Lloyd / davidlloyd.net)

Born Free’s appeals have raised thousands of dollars and pounds for animal rescue and rehabilitation operations in dozens of countries. The organisation exposes horrific animal cruelty: lions kept in cages knee-deep in excrement; elephants poached in their thousands for their ivory; moon bears painfully milked for bile; dolphins swimming listlessly in filthy swimming pools.

Such barbaric treatment has informed Born Free’s ethos, which lies in compassion for the individual animal. It believes that animals such as lions have multi-faceted personalities, and that they express traits such as joy, regret, sadness, happiness and love: a belief borne out by Elsa and also by Christian, a lion cub bought during the swinging sixties from the pet department of London’s Harrods store.

Christian the Lion

Christian spent the first few months of his life in a furniture shop owned by friends Ace Bourke and John Rendall before being placed in the care of George Adamson, who successfully returned him to the Kenyan wilds. After almost a year of living free, his emotional reunion with Ace and John on a rocky outcrop in Kora National Park was captured on film by Bill. His “embrace of love”, as Virginia described it, showed that the bonds of affection were still strong.

(Photograph by David Lloyd / davidlloyd.net)

Other animals have not experienced Christian’s comfortable early life, nor the chance of freedom. Many have experienced enormous cruelty, such as Anthea and Raffi, two lions that were rescued from a tiny cage atop a restaurant in Tenerife. Born Free’s photo album is peppered with similarly heart-breaking stories and images: a solitary Black rhinoceros kneeling despondently in a concrete enclosure surrounded by barbed-wire; Kimba the emaciated lioness barely able to stand in an Italian cage, her back legs weakened by malnutrition and cancer; Simba the circus lion staring mournfully through the wire mesh of his beast wagon. “Wild animals such as lions, which are social creatures, simply aren’t built for a lonely, sterile existence behind bars,” says Virginia McKenna. “They belong in prides in the African wilderness, with grass plains underfoot and a complex ecosystem in which to thrive”.

Where possible, the organisation rehabilitates captive animals to the wild. For those who have been too physically or mentally damaged by life in a cage, the prospect of a “life worth living” is provided at Sanctuaries created or supported by the Foundation, such as Shamwari, a wildlife reserve on South Africa’s Eastern Cape, Lilongwe wildlife centre in Malawi, or the Born Free Primate Sanctuary near San Antonio, Texas.

Decline in the Wild Lion Population

In the fifty years since the making of “Born Free” the threats to wild animals have grown. In 1975, estimates given by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) put Africa’s wild lion population at approximately 200,000; today, it is thought there may only be 35,000 left – and some experts believe the number may be as low as 25,000. Loss of habitats, trophy hunting (approximately 600 wild lions are shot for ‘sport’ each year) and an increase in the illegal wildlife trade are all factors contributing to the decline. The primary cause, however, is rapid human population growth and land-use conversion, which makes human-wildlife conflict a critical issue. Pastoral communities increasingly use lions’ habitat to graze their animals, so lions prey on poorly protected livestock. Herders then kill the lions in retaliation.

Born Free is supporting new campaigns to find ways in which people and wildlife can live peaceably together, by building predator-proof livestock “bomas” (stockades) and supporting organizations such as Ewaso Lions, which promotes co-existence between people and lions across northern Kenya’s Ewaso-Nyiro ecosystem, a wild country of ancient lava flows and grasslands scattered with desert rose. (See related: “http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/author/ewasolions/”).

In order to tackle trophy hunting, Born Free USA and others petitioned the U.S. government to list the wild African lion as endangered on the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. government’s subsequent decision – to list the species as threatened but with a special rule to prevent lion trophies being imported into the U.S. (currently at the rate of about 300 a year) unless they came from scientifically evaluated and sustainably managed stocks – will, if finally confirmed, drastically reduce the level of imports.

Elephant Emergency

(Photograph by David Lloyd / davidlloyd.net)

Born Free launched their “Elephant Emergency” campaign in 2014, to fight the illegal ivory trade. “Elephants are on the brink across most of Africa,” says Will Travers, now Born Free’s President. “On average, an elephant is killed every 15 minutes and then butchered for its ivory tusks. It is a disgrace.” Virginia McKenna agrees, “How can this still be going on in the 21st century? We have betrayed them.”

Two new reports, Ivory’s Curse and Out of Africa, published by Born Free USA in association with the research teams at C4ADS, have exposed the sophisticated criminal networks that are behind much of Africa’s elephant poaching. HRH The Duke of Cambridge referred to the reports in his address to the World Bank in December 2014.

Elsa’s Spirit

An early scene in the film “Born Free” depicts Virginia and Bill (as Joy and George) taking the lioness acting as ‘Elsa’ on a trip to Kenya’s coast. They play volleyball with her on the long stretches of Watamu beach, and swim with her among the blue waters and coral gardens of the Indian Ocean. The lioness grimaces slightly as she pads gingerly into the ocean, whiskers twitching, Virginia holding her tail.

It is a remarkable scene, and the warmth of the actors’ affection for the lioness is palpable. They didn’t know it at the time, but their lives had changed forever. Ahead of them stretched years of campaigning for the liberty and dignity of wild creatures.

“I never met Elsa the lioness,” wrote Virginia, “ … but her spirit led me to where I stand today.”

]]>http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2015/08/09/elsa-the-lioness-the-spirit-of-born-free-on-world-lion-day/feed/0152763Black Rhino return to Samburu-Landhttp://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/29/black-rhino-return-to-samburu-land/
http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/29/black-rhino-return-to-samburu-land/#respondWed, 29 Jul 2015 22:28:50 +0000http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/?p=161234In the shadow of Mount Kenya lie the hot lowlands of Samburu-land. This vast, beautiful region of rocky ridges, acacia grasslands and doum palm forest is the traditional homeland of the Samburu people, the rare Grevy’s zebra and the Gerenuk antelope. For thousands of years, it was also home to the black rhino, until the last one was poached 25 years ago.

But as from May 2015, black rhino (Diceros bicornis michaeli) have once again roamed the plains of Samburu. Thanks to a relocation programme spearheaded by the Northern Rangelands Trust, Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), 10 black rhino from the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, Nakuru and Nairobi National Parks have been relocated to a 21,460-acre sanctuary within Samburu’s Sera Community Conservancy, with a plan to move more rhino to the area later in the year. The rhino are now thriving in the habitat they once roamed in thousands.

The black rhino has inhabited the earth for five million years, yet today is a Critically Endangered species. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, populations of the eastern black rhino dropped by 98 percent between 1960 and 1995, mainly as a result of poaching. Today, rhino horn fetches approximately $65,000–$70,000 per kg, which is more than the price of gold on the black market. It is an ugly business; poaching is an international environmental crime that has links to international drug, arms, and human trafficking syndicates. Interpol has referred to it as, “one that can affect a nation’s economy, security and even its existence”.

Over the past two decades, however, inspiring conservation projects in Kenya have ensured that the country’s population of black rhino has risen from 381 in 1987 to approximately 640 today. Wildlife conservancies such as Lewa have been instrumental in establishing viable breeding populations; Lewa’s conservation efforts have been so successful that by 2013 the conservancy reached its maximum black rhino carrying capacity (when this happens, the birth rate drops off and an increased likelihood of fighting among the resident rhino population develops). To counteract this problem, Lewa moved 11 rhino to neighbouring Borana Conservancy in August 2013; 10 were also received from Nakuru National Park. This translocation meant that for the first time since the 1970s there were black rhino on Borana.

It is not only poaching that threatens black rhino, but lack of habitat. “Whilst Africa’s rhino population is under threat from poaching, ironically its ability to grow its population is restricted by the lack of habitat that is both suitable and safe. Finding new space is critical,” says Charlie Mayhew, Chief Executive of Tusk Trust, the conservation organisation which is one of a small consortium of funders financing the translocation to Samburu. “The Sera area is perfect rhino habitat,” says Geoffrey Chege, Chief Conservation Officer for the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. “It is large, which helps to diversify the gene pool, and remote, which helps in protecting the rhino as it is difficult for instigators of wildlife crimes to access the sanctuary.”

Importantly, this is also the first time in Kenya that a local indigenous community will be responsible for the protection and management of black rhino. Until now, rhino conservation, and other endangered species protection, has been the preserve of private wildlife conservancies and government-run national parks.

It is hoped that, in time, the rhino in Samburu will also bring tourism to the region. “This is the best way forward for our pastoralist community,” says Pauline Longojine, the Sera Conservancy chairlady. “To have wildlife and livestock side by side, we are so happy. We look forward to welcoming tourists to our Sanctuary – this will provide valuable income for the Conservancy, and for individuals. It will also raise awareness of the black rhino.” Alex Edwards, owner of travel company Natural High Safaris, adds, “Our clients increasingly understand that a safari not only provides a great holiday, but also an insight into the link between tourism, conservation and the local economy. Once they see conservation and tourism in action, it is likely to be something that cements their love affair with Africa.”

The Samburu rhino are guarded by the community’s Sera Rhino Sanctuary rangers, who have been trained in data-gathering, anti-poaching operations, bush craft and effective patrolling.“The Sera Rangers are based on the highly successful and effective armed ranger teams employed by the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and Northern Rangelands Trust. They have controlled poaching far more effectively than in many parts of Africa,” says Charlie Mayhew. The rangers will also be supported by a mobile anti-poaching squad known as 9-1, which has been trained by an ex-British Army officer in conflict and combat management.

The translocation of the rhino to Samburu began the week HRH The Duke of Cambridge made an impassioned speech about the illegal wildlife trade, at an event to mark Tusk Trust’s 25th anniversary. “The plunder and destruction of Africa’s natural endowment remains one of the greatest challenges facing the world,” he said. “The time for words has long gone – we must see action.”

]]>http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/29/black-rhino-return-to-samburu-land/feed/0161234Nomads of Dolpohttp://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/12/nomads-of-dolpo/
http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/12/nomads-of-dolpo/#respondSun, 12 Jul 2015 21:44:30 +0000http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/?p=159881It is one of the last nomadic trading caravans in the world. For more than a thousand years, the Dolpo-pa people of Nepal have depended for their survival on a biannual journey across the Himalayas.

Once the summer harvest is over, the people of Dolpo sew flags and red pommels into the ears of their yaks, rub butter on their horns and throw barley seeds to the cold wind. Then they leave the fertile middle hills of their homeland and head north, to the plateaux of Tibet, where they carry out an ancient trade with their Tibetan neighbours.

Dolpo is a wild, mountainous region in the far western reaches of Nepal. Once part of the ancient Zhang Zhung kingdom, it claims some of the highest inhabited villages on earth. There are no roads and no electricity; access is by small plane or several days’ trek over high passes. Fierce winter snowstorms ensure that these routes are impassable for up to six months of the year, when Dolpo is isolated from the rest of the country. But during the summer months, when the alpine fields are alive with yellow poppies and the lower slopes are furrowed with barley and buckwheat, the paths are navigable again.

Dolpo is beautiful, remote and culturally fascinating, but it is also one of the poorest areas in Nepal. It lies in the rain-shadow of the mighty Mount Dhaulagiri, so monsoon rains needed to irrigate the land are infrequent, and eking out a living from the arid soil is a challenge. Most Dolpo households only produce enough food to last for six months. Staple foods include tsampa (roasted barley flour), yak and mutton, eaten with radishes or wild nettles gathered from the fields. And in a tree-less environment, it is only yak dung that provides the fuel for fires.

By acting as high-altitude middlemen in an ancient grain-salt trade between the Dropka nomads of Tibet and the Nepali of the south, the Dolpo-pa have for centuries boosted their meagre food supplies. They originally carried grains such as corn and millet from farms in the temperate valleys of Nepal; these they traded for rock salt gathered by the Dropka from salt flats high on the Chang Tang Plateau. The Tibetans needed grains and the Dolpo-pa lacked salt: it was a perfect trade.

But the journey north across the Himalayas was, and still is, perilous. “It is a difficult journey, says Tsering Samdup, a Tibetan teacher from Dolpo. “Leading a caravan of yaks and horses is a tough job. The weather is cold and we face many difficulties on the way.” The route winds through forests of juniper bush and silver birch, along the edge of turquoise waters of holy Phoksundo lake and past millennia-old stupas strewn with prayer-flags. Rickety bridges improvised from birch poles and stone slabs give access to the rugged upland country of Upper Dolpo, where snow leopards, white wolves and rare Himalayan blue sheep still roam.

But this extraordinary journey has slowly been changing. For the past few years, the use of state-subsidised iodised salt from India has replaced Tibetan rock salt. This has helped in reducing the previously high incidence of goitre, which was endemic in Nepal until the early 1980s, and which was often caused by iodine deficiency. But there is now far less demand for rock-salt. “Although many Dolpo-pa still prefer to use Tibetan salt in their salt-butter tea,” says Samdup.

“It is now a much more complex and dynamic trading system than the salt-trade model,” says Jamie McGuiness of tour operator Project Himalaya. “The locals in Dolpo are adapting to whatever trade they can to turn a profit and give them greatest food security.”

The commodity that is now providing a profit for the Dolpo-pa is the Chinese caterpillar fungus known as yarchagumba (meaning “summer grass, winter worm” in Tibetan), which has become one of the most expensive natural medical resources in the world. Found during the monsoon on alpine grasslands that lie above 3,000 metres, yarchagumba is neither a grass nor a worm, but a “parasitic complex” which is part Tibetan ghost-moth, part fungus. Although it is has been used by practitioners of both Traditional Chinese and Tibetan Medicines for hundreds of years, it is only in recent years that it has commanded high prices and has become known as ‘Himalayan viagra’, for its aphrodisiac qualities. According to biologist and Research Fellow Uttam Babu Shrestha, who is conducting one of the few studies into the fungus, the market price of yarchagumba increased by up to 2300% in the decade between 2001 and 2011, and more than 70,000 people a year are now involved in the gathering process of Dolpo’s two-month harvest in May and June. “Dolpa district is regarded as a major warehouse of Chinese caterpillar fungus in Nepal,” says Uttam Babu Shrestha. “There is no single inch of habitat left untouched by the harvesters at the end of the harvesting season.”

Instead of grains, the Dolpo-pa now sell yarchagumba for cash to Shingpa farmers and Khampa and Dropka nomads, at a designated market on the border. They use the cash to buy supplies of rice, grains, sugar and other products such as solar powered lighting kits, cheap alcohol, thermos flasks, watches and expensive dzi (highly-prized stone beads). “The money they earn means they can also send their children to better quality boarding schools,” says Jamie McGuinness.

However, caravan numbers have been dwindling for years and in 2015 it is uncertain as to how many will make the journey north. Once the Dolpo-pas’ caravans consisted of extended family groups; now it is largely only men who travel with their yaks and mules, while women and children stay at home to tend to the crops. Plans to cut a road through Dolpo, from Marim Bhanjyang on the Tibetan plateau to the Dho valley, could ultimately mean the yak caravans become redundant. In addition, the cross-border trade is restricted by the window of time that China and Nepal allow. For years nomads were free to trade at any time, but in 2013 came to a halt. “The situation changes often”, says Kim Bannister of Kamzang Journeys. “In 2014, the border was only open for 15 days. In 2015, there is a risk that the border might be closed for the whole year.”

The prospect of a millennium-old journey coming to an end is a sad one for Samdup. “This border market is very important for the Dolpo-pas, because it is the only market from where they purchase all their supplies for the year,” he says. “And as the Dolpo-pa and Tibetans share the same culture and traditions, our gatherings are culturally important to us. We don’t want to lose them.”

‘In the forest, we see with our ears,’ says José Carlos Meirelles, an expert on Brazil’s last uncontacted tribes.

During his recent expeditions into the remote rainforest of Acre state, contacted Indians told him that uncontacted Indians imitate different animals to express emotions:wild pig when they are scared, macucau bird to let people know they are near, jaguar when they are angry.

Acre state is home to some of the last uncontacted tribes in the world: It is thought that at least 600 people, belonging to at least four different groups, live deep within its tropical rainforest. Survival International,the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, definesuncontacted tribesas peoples who have no peaceful contact with anyone in the mainstream or dominant society. They are extremely susceptible to diseases transmitted by outsiders such as measles and the common cold.

The existence of uncontacted tribes has been denied by many with vested interests over the years, despite the vast amount of evidence that has been collected. One official inPeru likenedthem to Scotland’s Loch Ness monster. In 2007, Alan Garcia, the then President of Peru, declared that the isolated Mashco-Piro were ‘created by environmentalists’ opposed to oil exploration.

That uncontacted tribes exist in the 21st century may be astonishing, but it is irrefutably true. Until recently, however, little was known about the daily lives of uncontacted tribes in Acre state. Experts were aware that they moved across the rainforest at different times of the year. It was also widely accepted that the decision to remain isolated was a strategy for survival, born of previous or current disastrous encounters with invaders. Many of the uncontacted Indians in Acre state are probably the descendants of the few survivors of the rubber boom that wiped out 90% of the Indian population in a horrific wave of enslavement, disease and massacres.

Reasons to Stay on the Run

It is thought that these traumas are still alive in their collective memory, so staying uncontacted, sometimes on the run, makes common sense – it is simply the best way to stay alive. ‘When uncontacted tribes choose to remain isolated, they will have very good reasons to do so,’ says Fiona Watson, Director of Field Research at Survival. From speaking with recently contacted tribal peoples, information has been gleaned about what they know of the outside world. ‘We have always seen airplanes, but we did not know that it was something useful of the conjñone (white people),’ said Parojnai, an Ayoreo Indian from Paraguay, after he was contacted. ‘When we saw these big planes with this white smoke behind, we thought they were stars.’ Little else was known about them.

However four years ago, in 2010, an astonishing photograph was released by FUNAI. It was an image of an uncontacted community in Acre state, together with what was thought to be the first-ever film footage of the community. Taken from an aeroplane, it showed an Indian man and several children standing in a clearing at the headwaters of the Envira River. He was staring up at the ‘plane, with a long wooden arrow in one hand, his body painted red with crushed seeds of the annatto shrub. Survival International published the images: Proof of their existence would help protect their lives.

The photographs produced a global wave of support for uncontacted tribal peoples far greater than anything Survival has ever known before. Within two days of publication, Peru’s Foreign Ministry announced that Peru would work with Brazilian authorities to stop loggers entering isolated Indians’ territory along the countries’ joint border. It was testament to the view of José Carlos Meirelles, that ‘one image of them has more impact than a thousand reports.’

Increase of Uncontacted Indians in Acre

More than three years after the images were published, additional information has been revealed by Meirelles about the uncontacted communities of western Amazonia. His research, gathered during long expeditions in the rainforest, has revealed a ‘significant increase’ in the number of uncontacted Indians in Acre state. On the surface this appears like positive news. But the reasons for this growth are, in part, sinister: many of the uncontacted Indians may have walked long distances – some up to 500 kms – to flee from the logging that has been devastating the Peruvian rainforest. The consequences of this increase in the number of people in the region areequally worrying.‘The displacement of Indians from Peru means that part of the land the uncontacted Indians now occupy is outside indigenous territory,’ says Fiona Watson, ‘which means that the uncontacted are vulnerable to conflict with non-Indians.’ As they are encroaching on land of Brazil’s uncontacted peoples, they will also be competing for resources and tensions will run high.

Expeditions and Evidence

Meirelles’s expedition team – which comprised Indians, FUNAI members and top anthropologists – ventured in to an extremely remote corner of Acre state called the headwaters of the Envira River, which Meirelles describes as the start of ‘the wrinkling of the Andes mountain range.’ A tributary of the Juruá river, it is a beautiful region of creeks and waterfalls; a thousand smaller streams run between one section of high land and another. It is also an area of extraordinary biodiversity: Tapir, deer, wild pig, puma, spotted jaguar and the endangered bearded saki monkey share their homeland with the uncontacted tribes. There are thousands of bugs. ‘On every trip I see an inverterbrate I’ve never seen before,’ says Meirelles,adding that some are edible.

Meirelle’s team discovered footprints, temporary camps, shelters, food remains, baskets, arrows, animal bones, tortoise shells, and the remains of fires and gardens planted with manioc, banana plants and papaya:The tell-tale signs of uncontacted peoples. Sightings made by already contacted Indians in the area have also risen sharply; tribe members have heard uncontacted Indians imitating birds and monkeys deep within the rainforest. There has also been an increase in raids on rubber-tappers’ homes.

Meirelles’s method is to track uncontacted Indians for days, ‘until we know they are close. Then we turn back,’ he says. ‘Arrows hurt.’ Survival has long warned about the dangers of contact with uncontacted groups. Not only is there the risk of violence, but disease can quickly kill entire populations following contact.Additionally, when uncontacted groups from different territories meet another tribe, conflict can occur.

En route, the team finds remains of food the uncontacted Indians have eaten – fish, banana skins, manioc and peanut shells. Human footprints are, of course, a giveaway. ‘It’s easy to tell the difference between men’s and women’s footprints,’ Meirelles says. ‘Children are a little more difficult. Boys have longer, tougher feet, whereas girls’ feet are more delicate.’

The Flight From Peru

The teams have found that the increase of uncontacted tribes in the Envira region has occurred within the ‘Humaita’ and ‘Xinane’ – whose names denote the eponymous rivers of their homelands – and the ‘Mascho-Piro’ tribe.

The ‘Xinane’ may have fled from the Murunahua reserve in Peru, where illegal loggers and coca growers are invading their land. They have raided FUNAI’s field post for corn seeds and banana plant saplings, which probably indicates that they left their land in Peru in a rush. It is also thought that the uncontacted Indians who approached the contacted Ashaninka community of Simpatia in Brazil during the second week of June 2014 were ‘Xinane’ Indians. They came very close to the Ashaninka, from whose village they took pots, pans and clothes.

The ‘Humaita’ are horticulturalists who grow manioc, banana, and corn and are known by other Indians as ‘the Embira people’, for the waistbands they make from Embira tree fibre. They are thought to have walked nearly 100kms from their villages in Peru. But it is the Mashco-Piro uncontacted Indians who are thought to have walked the furthest in order to flee from the destruction of their lands and the potential demise of their people: it is 500 kms from the headwaters of the Madeira river in Peru.

The Last of his Tribe

There are many other uncontacted tribes in Brazil. As a result of aerial and land surveys, the Brazilian government has so far identified 77 uncontacted peoples. One tribe in Rondônia state has only one lone man; known as ‘the Last of his Tribe’, he resists all attempts at contact. Others, like the Kawahiva tribe, have only a few dozen people remaining. It is believed they have stopped having children because they are constantly fleeing loggers and other intruders. The uncontacted Awá, who are the Earth’s most threatened tribe, hunt monkey and other game at night, in order to remain hidden.

Allare extremely vulnerable to diseases transmitted by outsiders, as they have not developed immunity to viruses such as influenza, measles and chicken pox that most other societies have been exposed to for hundreds of years. And all have a right to their lands, under international and national law.

The fact that they remain isolated does not mean that they remain ‘undiscovered’ or ‘unchanged’. ‘Most are already known of and, however isolated, all constantly adapt to their changing circumstances,’ says Stephen Corry.Equally,they are not ‘backward’ for their lack of ‘industrialised’ technology, material goods or formal education.

On the contrary, tribal peoples possess vast, unique repositories of knowledge of their eco-systems, and usually are their best conservationists. There is evidence to prove it: it is no coincidence that 80% of the world’s biologically richest places are the territories of tribal communities who have lived there for millennia. Indigenous territories cover five times as much of the Amazon basin as other protected areas and are the most important barrier to deforestation in the region. Meirelles agrees. ‘The uncontacted tribes have proved they know how to live in a sustainable way,’ he says. ‘They serve this planet without even knowing it. I think we’re missing an opportunity to learn from them.’

Looming Dangers for Acre’s Uncontacted Indians

For the uncontacted communities of the Envira River, there are serious dangers looming. In 2011 drug smugglers and illegal loggers overran a FUNAI post that had been monitoring their territory. Brazil’s Congress is debating a series of controversial bills and constitutional amendments which would drastically weaken indigenous peoples’ control over their lands. They are being pushed forward by Brazil’s powerful rural lobby group that includes politicians who own ranches on indigenous land.

One thing is certain: their future depends on the protection of their lands, which gives them a chance to decide for themselves how much interaction they want with others. If this happens, they will thrive. Stephen Corry says it depends on the western world. ‘The disappearance of the world’s remaining uncontacted tribes lies in our hands, and is one of the greatest humanitarian challenges of the century,’ he says.

The world’s collective conscience has shown itself to be strong in the number of supporters for uncontacted peoples. Since the aerial images were published in 2011, 135,000 people have signed the petition on Survival’s website in support of uncontacted tribes in Brazil. This speaks volumes about the general recognition of tribal peoples’ rights to live in the way that they choose, and for human diversity. ‘The world needs human diversity just as much as it needs bio-diversity,’ says Stephen Corry. ‘We can’t afford to lose unique, vibrant societies.’